Plane crash near Is­lam­abad kills all 48 on board

AB­BOT­TABAD | A plane be­long­ing to Pak­istan’s na­tional car­rier crashed and burst into flames on Wed­nes­day with 48 peo­ple on board, killing all of them, the air­line chair­man and po­lice said.

Ac­cord­ing to se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer Khur­ram Rasheed, the plane crashed in a vil­lage in the district of Ab­bot­tabad, 45 miles north­west of the cap­i­tal, Is­lam­abad. The small twin­pro­peller air­craft was trav­el­ing from the city of Chi­tral to Is­lam­abad when it crashed shortly af­ter take­off.

Ac­cord­ing to Daniyal Gi­lani, the spokesman for Pak­istan In­ter­na­tional Air­lines (PIA), the plane had lost touch with the con­trol tower prior to the crash. He said the plane was car­ry­ing 42 pas­sen­gers, five crew mem­bers and a ground en­gi­neer. Two Aus­tri­ans and a Chi­nese cit­i­zen were among the dead, he said.

PIA has re­leased names of pas­sen­gers, who in­cluded Ju­naid Jamshed, a singer who be­came a well-known Is­lamic preacher.